aimé la paperasse ?

4/4 UPPER MUSTANG & UPPER DOLPO

Day 26 Oct 27 Shey Gompa 4343m – Nangdala La 5350m – Forest camp
3750m. It’s a beautiful walk today! The first two hours is a gradual, steady
climb up the valley from Shey Gompa; the next hour is a traverse around the
hillside, followed finally by a short steep climb up to the pass for stunning
views of the high, barren landscape ( it took me just over three hours,
including a snack stop, to reach the top of the pass). It’s then a steep
descent to the river, followed by a couple of hours picking your way along the
rocky river bed, criss crossing the river as the trail continues down through a
Mordor-like canyon until you emerge into a forested area where the river meets
the Phoksundo Khola. The temperature rises rapidly as you descend, be prepared
to strip off those layers!

Day 27 Oct 28 Forest Camp – Phoksundo Camp 3630. This is a very
easy, very short two hour walk along the Phoksundo Khola to the campsite on the
northern shore of Phoksundo Lake. Stunning views of Kanjirowa Himal to the
west. Once you’ve unpacked, there is a great walk along a little-used trail
along the hillsides of the northern shore of the lake. It provides stunning
views down the lake and into the eastern arm of the lake. Along one long
stretch of the trail I saw fresh snow leopard paw prints in the dust, but sadly
no visible snow leopard…

Day 28 Oct 29 Phoksundo Camp – Ringmo 3630m Again a very short
walk, less than 2.5 hours including many photo stops and stoppage time to let
the numerous trains of mules and horses to pass. The trail here is generally
very narrow, if you see/ hear a train of pack animals heading your way, give
yourself plenty of time to find a spot to scramble off the path….it’s a long
way down if they push you off! Views of the lake are incredible… the colour of
the water is stunning. In the afternoon it’s nice to visit the Bon gompa on the
southwest corner of the lake; the trail up the hillside behind the gompa has
fallen into a pretty bad state with multiple rockslides.

Day 29 Oct 30 Ringmo – Rechi 3011m. We were supposed to have a
rest day at Ringmo to allow for exploration around the lake, however our
esteemed leader made the inexplicable decision we would pack up and walk a
couple of hours down the valley. We took the route on the western side of the
Phoksundo Khola, with lovely views from the rotunda, however there is also a
path on the eastern side which passes through Rike village before re-joining
the main path. It is a scenic walk down the valley through the forest to Rechi
( the plan had been to stay at Amchi, however all the campsites were full). The
river is a stunning clear pale bule colour. Along the way there is a major
trail coming off to the west, this leads to the Kagmara La – apparently a lot
of work has been done on the trail to the pass making it suitable for horses
and mules, opening up this route to trekkers.

Day 30 Oct 31 Rechi – Kageni. It’s a lovely walk down the
valley, first to Chhepka ( about three hours from Rechi), another half an hour
or so to the small hydroelectric power station ( hello power lines for the
first time in weeks!) – great lunch spot just across the bridge from here –
then another 1.5 hours to Kageni. It’s so warm that a dip in the river here is
almost inviting…

Day 31 Nov1 Kageni – Juphal. It’s a short walk down the valley
to Suligad, past the check points ( we went straight through), across the
river, then across a large suspension bridge to meet the Juphal – Dunai road.
There are a few taxis on this road, however you need to have the phone number
of someone in Juphal or Dunai to send an empty taxi to pick you up. It is a
short walk up the road toward Juphal, before taking a shortcut along a trail
which winds through the multi-level village. The tourist hostels are in the
uppermost portion of the village, near the tiny airstrip. Don’t stay at
Tripura… my room key was labelled “Toilet 1”, which was a pretty good
description. Stunning views of the surrounding hillsides and villages.

Day 32
Juphal – Nepalgunj – Kathmandu. Flights to and from Juphal are
a bit dicey. We were booked on the first flight of the day (6am), the airport
is hilarious – fill out your own boarding pass; get checked by security ( they
like to open your checked luggage ; my bag was locked, when they saw I was a
tourist they didn’t bother to check it however a fellow trekker was not so
lucky and they confiscated his pocket knife from checked luggage). Once you
pass security, you then get a VERY thorough pat down, then stand out on the
tarmac until your plane arrives. Juphal is probably not a great airport for
nervous flyers, although it has now been blacktopped. It is a very short
sloping runway – wheels up as you run out of tarmac!! It’s a very scenic flight
to Nepalgunj, though maybe a little too close to the hilltops at times. At
Nepalgunj, hopefully only a couple of hours to wait for the connecting flight
to Kathmandu, however if the flight from Juphal has been delayed you may be
forced to spend a night here.

Bring the warmest sleeping
bag you can find, to keep you warm on nights of minus 15C

A fleece sleeping bag liner
will help keep you toasty warm

Down slippers to wear in the
dining tent at night will mean your feet are warm when you go to bed.

An inflatable pillow – 75g of
heaven!

I used a Patagonia Black Hole
duffle bag. It withstood being scraped, dragged, dropped and stuffed. When
the horses went for an inadvertent swim, the Black Hole duffles proved
themselves totally waterproof while other bags did not fare so well.

Down jacket – the warmer the
better. I never hiked in mine, however I packed it in my daypack so it was
easily accessible as soon as I arrived at camp. As soon as the sun drops
behind the hills (3.30 or 4 pm) it is freezing.

Softshell jacket with a hood
– vital for those wind-whipped passes.

Softshell trekking trousers

Primaloft trousers for
evenings

Thermals – I love Icebreaker
and Helly Hansen

Warm socks – I took way too
many, and my boots did a great job of keeping my feet warm anyway. The
crew were happy to put my spare socks to good use.